Gulf oil spill, proposed solution to deepwater horizon leaking well, how to seal it

WAYS TO STOP THE LEAK

There are several ways to shut down that well. Several people have proposed a similar soluitons, but I think BP wants to keep that well: there's nothing wrong with the first few feet of the wellhead.

CATCH MORE OF THE STUFF

A steel cable could be used as a guide to slide sections of 3 foot PVC sewer pipe over the top of the wellhead. "Lasso" the wellhead and just slide the segments down over the cable, building from the surface. Reinforce the PVC with 2 other lengths of steel cable clamped to each section to carry the weight and reinforce the pipe.

BOLT ON A NEW FLANGE

UPDATE: The method used below was used and worked. I had this suggestion thing up for a month before they tried it....

I thought the robots today could do things like run a saw. I see a perfectly good flange on the top of the well. Cut the bolts off, remove the top flange. Guide a new flanged fitting on and clamp or bolt it down. The new fitting would be attached to a section of pipe and a shutoff valve. (Ever see the movie "Hellfighters?")

SHAPED EXPLOSIVE CHARGES

Drill 2 or more shafts parallel to the leaking well bore, about 100 feet deep should be fine. Place shaped explosive charges in each new shaft aimed inward towards the leaking well bore. These charges should easily collapse the well bore and stop the oil flow.

BUNKER BUSTER BOMBS

I've heard people suggest a nuke, but that's way more power than what is needed. At most one of the "super penetrators", or "bunker buster" bombs would be more than adequate. One of these could be set off above the well, creating a large deep crater. A set of surrounding charges could then be set off to fill the crater in.

NIGHTMARE SCENARIO

One reason I've heard for not using one of the above methods is that the rock is porous and they might end up with a lot of smaller leaks. If the charges were done above the proposed intersect of the relief wells they are drilling, the relief wells would stop the small leaks as well as it will stop the big one. The HUGE nightmare (and a good reason NOT to use a nuke) would be to blow a hole in the oil reserve itself, turning the Gulf of Mexico in to the world's largest Lava Lamp.

Wellhead after clipping of riser pipe on 3 June

They finally bolted a new flange on and stopped the leak. Here's live video of the well...

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